A Bit of Background

As I have become a VORACIOUS reader of late, I thought I'd start a blog to post my reviews of the books I read.  Here are some things you should know:

1.  I'm an audiobook addict.  I hate having to read a book in print, although various stories (and especially bad narrators) necessitate it. 

2.  I am completely taken with the Young Adult Dystopian genre.  However, I do love a good biography and I have all the Diana Gabaldon "Outlander" books.  I especially love time travel and quantum physics stuff, although scifi can get a bit technical for me.  

3.  I'm an active GoodReads member.  I depend on the reviews there to lead me to my next book.

4.  I get virtually all my books from my library sources online.  However, I am a member at Audible for when I'm desperate and have been known to buy books on CD from Amazon.

5.  I am seldom without my iPod.

6.  I won't post every day.  

My kids say I have a serious book addiction.  They are probably right.  However, this has paid off in spades - they are all readers.  Reading expands your vocabulary, your education, your mind.  If you aren't reading to your kids now, start.  And do all the voices.  That's the best part.

I grew up reading, and I love it.  I have a LOT of books.  I've moved them  quite literally from coast to coast, and I can tell you that it's always smart to pack them in small boxes.  I collect children's books done by my favorite illustrators.  I also buy and sell books on Amazon and Half.

TECHNICAL AUDIOBOOK NOTES:  Overdrive is an absolute necessity when it comes to downloading audiobooks.  Most of the books I can get are in wma format, and I have a MacBook.  So I use my daughter's Windows laptop to download them to my iPod, and then transfer them to my MacBook from there.  Important to note:  Overdrive for Mac will not work with .wma files.  But Overdrive for Windows will convert the files to mp4a for your iPod.  I then use Senuti to transfer them from my iPod to my MacBook.  Since library books are encrypted via Overdrive, trying to get Overdrive/Mac to work with wma files is pretty much a rabbit hole that will endlessly irritate you.  Think "never teach a pig to sing."  It's much easier to just find a windows computer that will download it for you.

I'm an interior designer by trade, and am currently renovating a condo to flip.  So my family and friends and subcontractors are usually frustrated with me - I tend to never answer my phone because I have my earbuds in, working on a project, listening to a book, and don't hear my phone ring.  Yeah, yeah.  I get back to everyone.  At least I'm good about returning phone calls.

I also frustrate my family frequently because I have to stop the book to talk to them, and of course they irritate me regularly because I have to stop the book to hear them.  Listening to audiobooks tends to be pretty isolating. I usually listen at night and fall asleep to a book, setting my iPod to turn off after an hour.  Of course, the next day I generally end up having to go back several chapters to catch what I missed after I fell asleep!  

OK, so that's it for all the background.  Since I have several reviews already on Goodreads, I'll start posting those.  If you have opinions, please comment away!  There is nothing like a good book, and especially a treat when there's a book discussion.